Ed board
Should Twitter delete President Trump’s account for violating its terms of service?
More stories from Emilee Wentland
President Donald J. Trump has tweeted his thoughts towards or about North Korea in the past several months, many of which are borderline threats and could be taken as such.
In fact, last week the North Korean Foreign Minister took one of Trump’s Tweets as a “declaration of war,” according to The Mercury News.
Twitter users have pointed out his Tweets could be classified as threats, which goes against Twitter’s terms of service.
Some examples of “violent behavior” Twitter does not tolerate are wishing for death upon people, references to mass murder and “repeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone.”
Twitter released a thread of Tweets last week in response to the controversy over Trump breaking Twitter rules.
“Among the considerations is ‘newsworthiness’ and whether a Tweet is of public interest,” the social media network stated.
The Spectator Editorial Board deliberated over whether or not Twitter should delete Trump’s account in response to him breaking the rules.
The first speaker said Twitter’s argument for keeping his Tweets online were invalid, as Trump can “be newsworthy elsewhere,” where he isn’t breaking any rules.
“If it’s against the rules, he should be held accountable just like everybody else,” they said.
Another speaker mentioned if his Twitter account got deleted, he’d probably move his words somewhere else, like Facebook or Instagram, and another person mentioned those sites would likely have similar terms the president would be in violation of, too.
“I don’t really know if he can (go to another social media site), so it’s interesting because if Twitter bans him, then Facebook would have to,” the second speaker said. “Would he able to use any social media?”
In response to that question, one editorial board member asked, “Is that really a bad thing?”
Twitter’s terms of service mention direct and indirect threats, so one speaker pointed out the president is definitely breaking the rules.
Another speaker thought Twitter might just be thinking of the money and the website’s popularity.
“I think Twitter has gained more popularity with this election and with Trump,” they said. “I bet honestly they’re just thinking of themselves and that they’ll probably lose some users, honestly, if there’s no more Trump Twitter. I mean there are people who literally just look at Trump’s tweets. I feel like that could be a huge role in this.”
The Spectator Editorial Board voted 7-0-1, with seven members voting in favor of Twitter deleting Trump’s account, and one member choosing to abstain.